After nearly a week’s worth of rampant speculation, Gucci has made good on what fashion-savvy sleuths have long been clamouring for: confirming the launch of its first ever collection designed in tandem with British skatewear label Palace.
In a fashion calendar that’s already positively heaving with high-profile team-ups (Christ, Fendace feels as though it happened last year) Palace x Gucci may well embody a diverse enough intersection – of tastes and sheer variety – to blow just about everything else that’s come before in 2022 out of the water.
It’s the first time that Palace designer Fergus Purcell has tried his hand at a womenswear collection: encompassing dozens of pieces in parallel with a full complement of menswear, teased in a sizzle reel directed by ertswhile Gucci collaborator Max Siedentopf. You can watch the full video below:
Available to purchase via Gucci’s Vault webstore – the umbrella platform Creative Director Alessandro Michele has built for the purposes of simultaneously showcasing the brand’s drops; vintage stock; curated third-party goods; and various Web 3.0 initiatives – the project with Palace “[reflects] the multifaceted identity of modern street culture,” offering an array of visually compelling mashups between the lavish, somewhat octogenarian clothing of Michele-era Gucci and Palace’s “bastardised” street style.
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Leaning hard into the same sort of winking, wilfully egregious logomania that is fully on display with collections like Palace x AMG or Ferrari, audiences can expect a range of sportswear that cribs from well-known imagery associated with both brands. There’s bombers; there’s truckers; even a custom Moto Guzzi V7 (though only 50 of the latter have been made).
Gucci’s intertwined double G finds its way (legally, this time!) onto a range of football jerseys, knit tank tops and other apocrypha one might – in bygone years – associate with the angst of hooligan culture. By the same token, Palace’s distinctive liveries are reimagined in a fresh ultra-luxe context: with the brand’s Triferg emblazoning tote bags, duffels, and even the shape of selected small leather goods.
For trad audiences looking to dip their proverbial toe into the iconoclasm of Gucci’s latest team-up, a closer look at the iconic horsebit loafer would be well-advised. Re-designed by Michele in four colourways (ranging from below-radar black to a rather pimptastic shade of pink) these are likely to be the least aggressively styled item you can pick up when Gucci x Palace launches on October 21st.
